1 . Recently, as I neared the top of a difficult 35 foot climb at the local climbing gym, I made a dynamic move to reach the last hold. My right hand _________ the small, awkwardly placed hold, but I couldn’t _________, and my body fell away from the wall. Falls like this happen all the time. The rope catches you, and you rest in the air before getting back to try the _________ again.

This time, however, something went terribly _________. I glanced down as I fell from the hold, and watched in _________   as the rope raced through the harness (保护带) and disappeared from view.

When I hit the ground, a _________   impact rushed through my body. I _________ on my right side. Had I been upright, or in just about any other   _________ . I would probably have broken my legs, and possibly my back. Still, I broke my right   _________, but the emergency medical technicians told me with   __________ that I wasn’t paralyzed (瘫痪的). That was my biggest fear and I realized I’d   __________ the fall.

Somehow, I’d tied a bad knot when I   __________ the rope to my harness. I had surgery on my ankle, and I’m in a wheelchair for a couple of months, but I’m just a __________ to the world of disability. Now I can feel the ankle getting __________ by the day. For all of that, I am extraordinarily __________.

2 . On July 24, 1916, a natural gas explosion trapped 32 men working in a tunnel 250 feet below Lake Erie. The first rescuers who entered the tunnel were _________ by gas, and for hours no one else dared to enter the suffocating (窒息的), _________ deathtrap.

Then, late that night, someone had an idea: _________ Garrett Morgan and his new invention. Garrett Morgan was a successful factory owner in Cleveland. The son of freed slaves and the seventh of 11 children, mechanically minded Morgan had opened his own sewing machine shop, which he soon _________ to a tailoring factory with 32 employees.

In the early 1900s, factory buildings were crowded and untidy. They were often made of wood, with no fire escapes. Fire could cause serious _________. Concerned about his employees, Morgan _________ with a “safety hood” (头罩) that would allow the wearer to _________ despite a fire’s poisonous smoke.

Morgan knew smoke rises during a fire. Therefore, he created a heat-resistant hood with a long tube reaching to the floor. Wearing Morgan’s hood, a firefighter could breathe the _________ air near the ground. Morgan lined the breathing tube with a sponge-like material that was wetted before use to ___________ the air. A second tube was designed to __________ exhaled (呼出的) air.

Called to the scene on the night of the tunnel explosion, Garrett arrived with samples of his safety hood. Still in their nightwear, he and his brother Frank put on the hoods and bravely entered the tunnel. It was a dangerous __________ of the invention, but they saved two lives and __________ four bodies before officials closed the __________. Morgan knew that more lives might have been saved if he had been called sooner.

The daring __________ made Morgan famous and brought requests for safety hoods from fire departments around the country. But his greatest __________ was knowing that his invention would now save more people.

3 . Frank was walking down the 6th Street on a hot sunny day when he saw smoke coming out of the street. He could _____ the smoke, and it was getting_____. Seeing the smoke coming out of a storm drain(雨水沟), Frank called the fire department _________. “The storm drain is _____ fire!” he said. The fire department asked for his whereabouts and he said he was near the 6th street. They said they would be right there to investigate the situation. Frank needn't to go anywhere, so he waited for the _____ to arrive. He was curious what could be burning beneath the street. As far as he knew, there wasn't anything beneath the street _____ concrete(混凝土). And everyone knows that concrete doesn't _____.

A fire truck arrived a few ____ later. “Are you the man who _____?” asked the driver. “Yes.” Frank answered. By now Frank could not only smell the _____ but also hear crackling sounds, just like wood burning. The firemen didn't seem to______ it an emergency. “What do you think it could be?” Frank asked the driver. “Oh, we know what it is. We have to ______ a problem like this every few months. It's the homeless people in their ‘______’.”

Homeless people have been living under the streets for years._____ their knowledge of the storm drain system, they ______ their own “houses” beneath the streets. These living areas have tables, mattresses, chairs, and sofas. The settlers often “borrow” electricity by connecting to a live wire above ground to ______ their own lights and even TVs underground. Either this ______ electricity or a cigarette can cause an occasional fire.

Frank watched ______   some firemen lifted a manhole cover (井盖) and went beneath the street with a fire hose (消防软管). Then a few minutes later, the ______ smoke turned white. Shortly afterward, the firemen reappeared with a ______ person who seemed to have just been woken up.

4 . Saint-Ex back from the dead

The French Government confirmed last Wednesday that pieces found at the bottom of the Mediterranean belonged to a plane piloted by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, one of France’s most beloved authors. The discovery throws some _______ on Saint-Exupery’s mysterious disappearance about sixty years ago.

The author of “The Little Prince” disappeared completely during World War II while _______ a group of men for the Allies (联盟)over _______ of France on July 31, 1944. But in May 2000, a professional diver discovered the remains of a Lockheed Lightning P38 plane thrown here and there on the seabed in 70 metres of water _______the French port of Marseilles. A state ban (禁令) on _______ dives in the area delayed further searches until October 2003. At that time, a salvage (打捞)team _______ pieces of the aircraft’s landing parts and engine. One of the pieces _______ a maker’s number. It wasn’t until last Wednesday that the researchers _______ confirmed that it belonged to Saint-Exupery’s plane.

Saint-Exupery was 44 when he _______ out to photograph parts of southern France in ________ for the Allied landings there, but was never seen again. Repeated searches of the coast ________ to turn up the aircraft, leaving the author’s disappearance ________ in mystery. The discovery was a dream for ________, even if it did not explain why the plane came down.

Saint Exupery was a great adventurer whose life and ________ turned him into one of the country’s biggest heroes. “The Little Prince” is a tale about a little boy who tells his ________ to a pilot he meets in the Sahara Desert.